GuillermoFenster at 13:20, 26 January 2026

2026-01-26T13:20:17Z

New page

{{Short description|Indian entrepreneur (1906–1983)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Dara Nusserwanji Khurody
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1906|01|02|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Mhow]], British India
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1983|03|30|1906|01|02|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Madhya Pradesh]], India
| occupation = Civil servant
| known for = [[Aarey Milk Colony]]<br>[[Toned milk]]
| awards = [[Ramon Magsaysay Award]]<br>[[Padma Bhushan]]
}}

'''Dara Nusserwanji Khurody''' (2 January 1906 – 1 January 1983) was an Indian entrepreneur known for his contributions to the dairy industry of India. He worked in various private and government organization at the start of his career and also held government official positions later on. He was the Milk Commissioner of Bombay (now Mumbai) from 1946 to 1952.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UGhmAAAAMAAJ | title=India Who's who | publisher=India News and Feature Alliance (INFA) Publications | year=1972 | page=14}}</ref> His name was considered "synonymous with dairying" in India in the 1950s.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Bd3sAAAAMAAJ |title= Making a difference |author= K. J. Alphons|publisher= Penguin Books |year= 1996 |page=209 |isbn= 9780670870875 }}</ref> He received the [[Ramon Magsaysay Award]] jointly with [[Verghese Kurien]] and [[Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel]] in 1963 and the [[Padma Bhushan]] from the [[Government of India]] in 1964.

== Biography and works ==

Dara Khurody was born on 2 January 1906 in [[Mhow]] town of now [[Madhya Pradesh]] state of India. His father and grandfather were both employees in government and his family wished he be one too. His interest in dairy developed in childhood while he assisted his uncle who supplied dairy products to the military establishments in Mhow. Thereupon he took admission in the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry at Bangalore (now [[National Dairy Research Institute]]) in 1923. He received training at the Government Creamery at [[Anand, Gujarat]] and in 1925 received gold medal from the government for proclaiming the first position in the All India Dairy Diploma Examination. For the next ten years he worked as the dairy farm superintendent at [[Tata Steel|Tata Iron & Steel Co.]] at [[Jamshedpur]]. During this tenure he visited [[Denmark]] and the [[Netherlands]] for various trainings.<ref name="Amul">{{cite book| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TYEkjpYkHrMC&pg=PA69 |title= The Amul India Story |publisher= Tata McGraw-Hill Education |author= Ruth Heredia |year= 1997 |pages= 69–70 |isbn= 9780074631607 }}</ref>

On his family's persistence, Khurody joined the Agricultural Marketing Department of the government in 1935. In this newly formed department he worked as the marketing officer for the dairy and animal husbandry products. During this tenure, he was an active member in formalizing the [[Agmark]] grading system. He wrote various reports on milk marketing in India and [[Burma]] and his 1941 report is considered an important work in the field. This report conceived the preliminary idea of the [[Aarey Milk Colony]] of Mumbai.<ref name="Amul" /> In this report he also proposed the concept of [[toned milk]].<ref name="Dairying in India" />

Produced by mixing natural buffalo milk with water and [[Skimmed milk|skimmed milk powder]], toned milk maintained the nutritious quality while reducing the cost considerably. He proposed that to meet the demand of the Indian market toned milk of 2 percent fat and double toned milk of 1 percent fat and 10 percent solids not-fat should be brought in market and promoted.<ref name="Dairying in India">{{cite book | title=Dairying in India: A Review | publisher=Asia Publishing House | author=D. N. Khurody | year=1975 | pages=19, 49 | isbn=9780210405642}}</ref> On 13 February 1946, this theory of toned milk was brought into practice for the first time and introduced in Bombay region. Toned milk brought the buffalo-milk down to 3 percent fat. This fat was comparable with the cow-milk but at the same time was at half price of buffalo-milk making it affordable to general masses. The Bombay Government purchased this toned milk to cater to 40,000 school children.<ref name="UNICEF and the dairies">{{cite web | url=http://www.unicef.org/about/history/files/UNICEF-at-40.pdf | title=UNICEF and the dairies | publisher=UNICEF | date=1986 | access-date=29 March 2016 | archive-date=10 May 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510154252/http://www.unicef.org/about/history/files/UNICEF-at-40.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> The product saw initial resistance in market but by 1975 market demand had increased above the production plant capacities.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IsQWAAAAIAAJ| title=Economics of Dairy Development in India | publisher=Prabhat Prakashan | author=Patrick John | year=1975 | page=169}}</ref>

Due to the [[World War II]], demand for [[ghee]] in military establishments had increased. Khurody had joined the Government of [[Bombay State]] as the Deputy Milk Commissioner to serve the state which was still struggling to cope up with the pressures of subsidized milk supplies during the war period. He implemented a ''Safe Milk Policy'' and new laws which stipulated that commercial establishments like hotels should use only skimmed milk, which was imported and supplied by the government at an enhanced price. The ''Safe Milk Policy'' would, years later, be promoted by [[UNICEF]] in Europe. The profits generated by the sale of imported skimmed milk helped to accumulate a corpus that was put in use to establish a buffalo colony at Aarey, a suburb on the eastern side of Bombay, which came to be known as Aarey Milk Colony. Before that, he had undertaken a study of the [[Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union|Kaira Model]] where almost 80 percent of the total daily production of 400 MT of milk was being converted into ghee or skimmed milk. He arranged for the procurement of milk from [[Polson (brand)|Polson's Dairy]] in [[Anand, Gujarat|Anand]] in large quantities for supply in Bombay, under a scheme named as ''Bombay Milk Scheme''.<ref name="Bombay Milk Scheme">{{cite journal | title=Bombay Milk Scheme | author=C. H. Brissenden | journal=International Journal of Dairy Technology | date=January 1952 | volume=5 | issue=2 | pages=108–114 | doi=10.1111/j.1471-0307.1952.tb01558.x}}</ref> The [[Aarey Milk Colony]] was established in 1949 and officially inaugurated by the then Prime Minister [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] in 1951.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-corporate/move-to-expand-aarey-dairy-production-capacity/article999646.ece |title=Move to expand Aarey dairy production capacity |place=Mumbai |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=28 July 2010 |access-date=29 March 2016}}</ref> The Colony engaged modern technologies of milk processing, toning, sterilizing, large-scale cheese production and logistics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pib.nic.in/archive/docs/DVD_44/ACC%20NO%20835-BR/HOM-1964-04-28-6157.pdf |title= Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi |date=28 April 1964 |access-date=29 March 2016 |publisher=Press Information Bureau }}</ref> In 1953, UNICEF coordinated with Khurody, inspired by his Aarey Colony, on various other projects. The Colony at that time had about 15000 buffalos and was also a tourist spot for foreigners.<ref name="Civilization Follows the Cow">{{cite web | url=http://www.unicef.org/about/history/files/Child-Nation-M-Black-Ch06-p141-167-civilzation-follows-cow.pdf | title=Civilization Follows the Cow | publisher=UNICEF | access-date=29 March 2016 | archive-date=1 June 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110601061557/http://www.unicef.org/about/history/files/Child-Nation-M-Black-Ch06-p141-167-civilzation-follows-cow.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> {{As of|2015}}, the colony spread over {{convert|1287|ha}}<ref name="Home">{{cite web | url=http://saveaarey.org/ | title=Save Aarey | publisher=Save Aarey Community | date=2015 | access-date=29 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170622030407/http://saveaarey.org/ | archive-date=22 June 2017 | url-status=dead }}</ref> with numerous cattle sheds where owners could entrust their buffaloes to be accommodated and tended to, at a nominal fee. UNICEF provided for technology and finances to develop the dairy industry in India. It financed {{USD}} 1.5 million towards construction of dairy at [[Worli]] in Mumbai. In May 1963, Worli dairy was inaugurated after efforts of Khurody and UNICEF. The dairy was then the world's largest milk processing unit with a daily capacity of {{convert|300000|L}}.<ref name="Civilization Follows the Cow" /><ref name="UNICEF and the dairies" />

== Family and personal life ==

Khurody married Persis and had two children. His son [[Nawshir Khurody]] graduated from [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], and was managing director of [[Voltas]] and chairman of [[Tata Infomedia]]. Nawshir's daughter [[Khursheed Khurody]]
studied Indology and South Asian Studies and Civilization at [[Harvard University]] and also acted in the 2005 Bollywood film ''[[Mr Prime Minister]]''.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report-mumbai-is-pretentious-1006685 | title=Mumbai is pretentious | work=[[Daily News and Analysis]] | date=10 January 2006 | access-date=10 March 2016 | author=Shaikh Ayaz}}</ref>

== Awards ==

In 1963, Khurody, along with [[Verghese Kurien]] and [[Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel]] was presented with the [[Ramon Magsaysay Award]] for "[[List of Ramon Magsaysay Award winners#Community Leadership|Community Leadership]]".<ref name="Nusserwanji Reference1">{{cite news |title=Amul remembers Tribhuvandas on his birth anniversary |url=https://www.indiancooperative.com/co-op-news-snippets/amul-remembers-tribhuvandas-on-his-birth-anniversary/ |access-date=10 March 2021 |publisher=Indian Cooperative |date=23 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j1iegDJAYakC&pg=PA31 | title=Greatness of Spirit: Profiles of Indian Magsaysay Award Winners | publisher=Rajpal & Sons | year=2010 | pages=29–33 | isbn=9788170288589}}</ref> In 1964, the Government of India honoured Khurody and Patel with the [[Padma Bhushan]], the third highest civilian honour of the country.<ref>{{cite web |title=Padma Awards Directory (1954–2014) |url=http://www.mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/YearWiseListOfRecipientsBharatRatnaPadmaAwards-1954-2014.pdf |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs (India) |date=21 May 2014 |access-date=10 March 2016 |pages=19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161115022326/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/YearWiseListOfRecipientsBharatRatnaPadmaAwards-1954-2014.pdf |archive-date=15 November 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 1960–69}}
{{RMA winners of India}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khurody, Dara Nusserwanji}}
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Madhya Pradesh]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Ramon Magsaysay Award winners]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in trade and industry]]
[[Category:People from Indore district]]
[[Category:Parsi people]]
[[Category:People from Mhow]]

Dara Nusserwanji Khurody - Revision history

GuillermoFenster at 13:20, 26 January 2026